Readers are warned not to open SMS or text messages from unknown senders.
There are at least two companies stealing money from unsuspecting owners of mobile phones. They somehow manage to obtain mobile phone numbers and other personal data of people. Then they send unsolicited SMS messages which are in essence nonsense. In the process, they drain whatever prepaid credits are stored in one’s mobile phone DRY! By merely opening the text message, the entire prepaid balance is fully liquidated.
If you are a plan holder and you happen to open an unsolicited text message, you are likely to be surprised by the astronomical amount being charged next time you receive your phone bill.
One of the most notorious company is Mobile Messenger. They have victimized many people in Sydney and probably all over Australia, including the writer of this column who had a prepaid balance of $30 on his mobile. The telephone number of the sender is 1971 9760.
The matter was reported to Optus, who refused to refund the stolen amount. Instead, Optus named Mobile Messenger as the guilty party and gave us their number: 1300 766 915.
One of our regular columnists wrote:
“I checked my Optus mobile bill because it was astronomically high! I discovered that I had accumulated $72.25 for receiving messages from an unknown sender.
I rang Optus who then gave me the name of the company who have been sending me messages at $2.72 per message!
The companies – Mobile Messenger and Text Services insist that I would have joined in via the internet. However, I have absolutely no idea or recollection of signing up for messages to be sent to me.”
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If you were charged on your cell phone bill by Mobile Messenger for mobile content services or subscriptions (i.e., ring tones, premium text alerts, etc.) that you never authorized from Mobile Messenger, tell us your Mobile Messenger story!